The hydraulic system (blood-side fluid system) of a blood treatment device, for example a dialysis machine, has to be filled with fluid, for example an NaCl solution or another sterile physiological solution, before being connected up to a patient, in such a way that air pockets in the system that would be dangerous for a patient connected up to the fluids of the system are eliminated. Furthermore, the hydraulic system can be flushed with the filled-in fluid for a certain period of time in order to filter/wash out any contaminants, dirt particles, etc. that may have deposited in the system before the system is connected up to the patient. On an extracorporeal blood treatment device, these two procedures are performed in the scope of a filling—circulation cycle.
In the state of the art, there are fluid containers preferably in the shape of plastic bags designed especially for extracorporeal blood treatment devices of this relevant type in order to enable, among others, the device functions as described above. This kind of fluid containers is also manufactured and sold by the applicant filing the application in hand.
As a rule, such a fluid container has a fluid intake chamber and two, preferably closable, fluid connectors. On a first of the two connectors, an arterial line section, and on the second connector, a venous line section of the hydraulic system (fluid system or also referred to as fluid conducting system) of the extracorporeal blood treatment device can be connected. The fluid bag as well as the two line sections together constitute a circulation device of the extracorporeal blood treatment device.
For the fluid system filling process, first the arterial line section is connected to the first fluid connector of the bag, and after opening of the first fluid connector, the hydraulic system is filled. The venous line section of the system first remains open to the atmosphere or is connected to a drain, a container or a bag so that air inside the system can escape/be vented. As soon as the filling process is completed, the venous line section is connected to the second fluid connector of the bag in order to circulate the fluid inside the hydraulic system of the extracorporeal blood treatment device for a certain period of time or a certain volume of flow through the bag chamber.
During this optional circulation process, the fluid flows through internal filtering devices of the system in which remaining air pockets are removed/filtered out with the fluid. If necessary, the venous line section of the hydraulic system can again be disconnected from the second fluid connector of the fluid bag and the fluid inside the hydraulic system can be flushed out again under constant supply of fluid from the container.
Upon termination of the optional circulation process, the filling/circulation cycle preparing for patient treatment is completed so that the two line sections (venous and arterial) can be disconnected from the fluid bag and connected up to the patient for treatment.
The description above of the filling/circulation cycle of a hydraulic system/fluid conducting system of an extracorporeal blood treatment device (dialysis machine) known from the state of the art indicates that the fluid bag remains in the system circuit for the filling and circulation processes, i.e. that the fluid inside the system is circulated through the fluid bag and/or its fluid chamber. As a result, the fluid in the fluid bag may get contaminated. The consequence of this is that with each new treatment preparation of the extracorporeal blood treatment device, a new fluid bag with fresh, uncontaminated fluid is used for the following filling/circulation cycle, whereas the fluid bag for the filling/circulation cycle performed before is disposed of independently of its residual content. It is obvious that this procedure results in the wasting of a large quantity of fluid in case of a high patient treatment number because the fluid content of a fluid bag can only be used (incompletely) for one filling/circulation cycle.
Furthermore, the fluid bags for blood treatment devices effectively concern a custom-made design with two separate fluid connectors, as a result of which manufacturing becomes more expensive due to smaller numbers as compared with conventional NaCl bags/bottles on the whole. In the end, the handling of the filling device according to the description above is not ideal. As a result, at least the arterial connector has to be connected to the fluid bag for filling the system with fluid in order to fill the system with fluid from the fluid bag and to vent it based on the “single-pass principle,” with the venous connector being open to a drain, a container or bag or to the atmosphere. Then the arterial connector has to be disconnected from the fluid bag and connected to an arterial patient access.